Last Night A DJ Took A Flight. This clever twist on the title of the hit 1982 song by Indeep is also the title of a recent climate paper, one that is damning towards DJs and their climate impact. Released in 2021, the report examined the travel patterns of the top 1000 touring DJs in Resident Advisor’s list at the time, and found that between them they took 51,000 flights a year – essentially one a week, each.
That meant that the carbon footprint for flights alone from top DJs was the equivalent of pressing 25 million records, or roughly 20,000 households’ annual electricity footprint, a startling figure that makes one major DJ the environmental equivalent of more than 80 average people.
DJs tend to travel differently to bands, of course. While touring bands typically move from city to city by bus, dragging substantial equipment along with them, DJs could – and often are – playing in Ibiza on Friday, Berlin on Saturday and Helsinki on Sunday, without presenting particular logistical difficulties. In fact, a glance at touring schedules highlights such patterns as being close to normal, with a few cross-continental flights thrown in.
The situation, it’s fair to say, is very far from climate optimised. Travel is by some way the biggest, but not the only issue presented by an industry that is all about bringing the party.
So what can we do about it? Europavox set out to ask people involved at the frontline, and trying to make a difference.
Local vs International: a booking approach
The very first response, from the vast majority of the industry people we asked, was about going local. While it could be possible, hypothetically, to optimise the travel routes of major touring DJs, the easiest way for climate conscious promoters and events to cut emissions is to cut travel entirely, as far as possible. That involves some long term thinking.
Florian Gobbé of French promoter Astropolis is one attempting to take such a stand. “We throw a contest where we select around 25 artists from our isolated part of France, to improve the local scene,” the Brest based promoter says, “and it helps us to avoid a heavy carbon footprint associated with a global line up.”
Astropolis have also tried to create networks that would help promote more local and sustainable touring routes. “It’s difficult to get results,” Gobbé says. “Everything is about speed, and a lot of people don’t think about more reasonable touring. When I can, I contact promoters from across France and Belgium to try to share artists, but it takes time and most of the time we don’t get the results we are looking for.”
“Lots of artists speak a lot about this stuff and tell people that they care about the planet, but if it’s longer on a train they would choose to travel by plane. You hear a lot of comments like “I’m ok to make efforts for the planet, but here this just isn’t really convenient, please respect my choice.”
The road is hard, then, but far from impossible. Galway, an Irish town on the fringes of the Atlantic renowned as a party city, is sometimes labelled as a kind of last stop in Europe, a hedonistic city with a great party scene. Playing there without flying is, for most, unrealistically time consuming.
Rob Rua, who works as both a DJ, and in developing wind and seaweed farms, and other sustainable practises, runs a monthly event called Ar Ais Arís in the city.
“We have managed to mitigate emissions from aviation by having a booking policy which focuses on Irish acts,” he says. “We have the odd international headliner, but we have found that there is more appetite today for Irish acts, than there was, say, a decade ago. I think Ireland today is more culturally confident in that regard.”
“We’ve also tried to make our events more about the overall experience of going to a party and having a good time, rather than being solely centred on a big name headliner. That’s worked really well for us, and every show is sold out. Our events are 150 capacity though, so we can give people a more intimate experience. In a small city like Galway, things don’t scale so well in any case.”
He admits, though, that this kind of thing might not be more globally applicable. “In larger cities there is pressure on venues and promoters to go bigger all the time, and you can get stuck in this hype circle of having to book bigger and bigger shows,” he says. “That does help grow the scene, but it can be unsustainable in a financial sense as well as an environmental one. Social media really feeds into that and deprioritises the local.”
Rua admits, though, that as a DJ he’d struggle to turn down an international booking. “I don’t think it’s fair to put people in that position though where they have to make those choices on an individual level,” he says. “Until we have clean aviation technologies, then these things need to be regulated for.”.
There is, in fact, an app for going local. Djaayz is a marketplace for hiring a local disc jockey to play virtually anywhere, at an hourly rate. “There is a growing awareness in the events industry about the environmental impact of large-scale events, including music festivals and club nights,” app co-founder Raphael Aflalo says. “Many event organisers are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint and promote sustainability, by promoting local events and talent, Djaayz can help support a more sustainable and environmentally conscious approach to the events industry.”
Of course, as Ruben Pariente of practical lobbying DJs for Climate Action says, reducing DJ’s journeys is not everything. “To be honest, while every action is helpful, and I prefer to remain positive, we can do everything with DJs and if people still choose to travel across the continent to watch people who play at festivals who might also be playing the next town over, it’s all for nothing,” he says. “The largest climate impact of almost every festival is from the people who travel to it.”
Pariente’s group are optimistic, though, and working on proof of concept, when it comes to reducing travel. One such example is La Fraicheur.
Travel: an individualist approach
La Fraicheur is a Barcelona-based French DJ who almost never flies. It is, it’s fair to say, career restricting. In fact, two promoters I speak to both agree that La Fraicheur is inhibiting her own career through her choice to be climate friendly (“she’d be much bigger otherwise”, Pariente says). That said, they both respect her for it.
“With the rise of low-cost flights, DJs touring habits have changed a lot in the past decade,” she says, “and you don’t need to be famous to spend your time in planes. It’s been fully normalised, if not even glamorised, for any mid-tier DJ like myself to take 2-4 European flights per weekend, which means that in a month we have used up all of the GIEC recommended overall individual yearly carbon footprint.”
“It is now stated in my contract that transportation by train needs to be the priority when booking gigs, and either clubs and festivals get on board or I simply don’t play” she continues.
La Fraicheur © Candela Cuervo
She’s about to put her money where her mouth is with an extensive tour by train, too. “For this fall, I’m working with Technopol, DJs 4 Climate Action, Le Collectif des Festivals and Music Declares Emergency on organising an “artistic short circuit” tour, which would be two or three weeks of uninterrupted touring solely done by train,” she says. “If you want to make it financially sustainable, this is radically revolutionary for our industry because its logistical reality challenges the territorial exclusivity clauses of most contracts,” she says, also pointing to the mental health benefits of a more rounded touring schedule.
“Hopefully we find enough cultural movers that are willing to second guess our industry’s standards and practices to build this tour, which would be the best advocacy for it. Most humans need to see things work before committing to a change, so there’s gotta be some that take the risk, to show it’s doable,” she concludes.
The Smaller Details
Next to the travel for big international DJs and their fans, there’s no question that most other climate change moves pale into insignificance. That said, a combination of technology and more sustainable approaches can certainly help on smaller details.
Green club nights are, slowly, becoming a thing. On the more fanciful end of the scale are Energy Floors, which have been in operation in places like Coachella and Paradise City in the US since they launched in 2008. The floors absorb the energy of dancers’ movements, and can feed up to 35 watts of sustained energy into powering, for example, lights used in a club. It’s expensive, but effective.
The little things, arguably, are more effective than the big statement products. It’s worth remembering, for example, that carbon footprint on travel is connected to weight, so by reducing the equipment that needs to be carted around with a performing DJ, the carbon footprint is also significantly reduced. A club providing everything for touring acts is actually making quite a significant difference.
“Community building is another key thing,” Pariente adds, linking back to travel and domestic efforts. “After Covid, some clubs were forced to book local DJs, because travel wasn’t possible. They realised the club wasn’t less full. Local communities are very important.”
The Future
All of our interviewees recognise the need for change, but none of them feel that everyone else, or indeed very many others, agree, at least not firmly enough to take much action.
“It’s a very solitary road, and most people don’t want to take accountability for their own behaviours and life choices,” La Fraicheur says. “In order to be supportive of my decisions, people would need to first face their own habits and consumption, which not a lot of people are inclined to do.”
Cathy Guetta, former wife of David Guetta and dance socialite has seen a change in attitude, though, as she works to promote her new local DJ app DJaayz.
“I’d say there is definitely a growing awareness in the industry of the environmental impact of large-scale events, festivals and club nights,” she says. “Back in the day it was all about flash and excess, champagne and private jets.”
“Now we are more conscious of the earth and our priorities have changed, organisers are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint and are refocusing on building communities of people seeking human connection through music.” The future must be different, then, but those who are the cutting edge see plenty of room for hope.
